Steve Hamm's Bangalore Tiger

"Bangalore Tiger" is hard to read. To get the feeling just imagine reading a 300-page corporate brochure - the usual pompous style and "the world's leading" attitude.

Consider this passage: "These were members of the intrepid band that planted the seeds of a global tech powerhouse in a small vegetable company in western India"

Wow, I can imagine Steve Hamm at his desk with his hot mug of coffee and his thesaurus, searching for the one word that could only communicate all the bravery and merit of the Wipro personnel.

In fact, "Bangalore Tiger" is dangerous. Because many will misinterpret it as the India success story. While somebody might have had successful projects in India, too often the stories about Indian programmers send shivers down my spine.

However, if we cut out all the pretentious writing (that spans to nearly two thirds of the book)we will actually squeeze out some potentially interesting facts:

1.
Wipro invests in establishing a culture of high productivity. If you are not ready to be assessed against your scorecard goals every month, then you don't belong here. This is the Wipro Way : 6-day working week, 1 am work calls, high performance. Off course this kind of schedule is not going to work in US companies and especially in European ones. But what we can learn here?

Whatever the focus is ( productivity, trust or communication) big investments in setting up a corporate culture makes sense.

2.
Wipro picks up new approaches to management and measurement as quickly as they come out. The company fires up quick implementation plan, starts small and assesses the progress rigorously. If it doesn’t work they throw it away. If it does, like 6 Sigma and Lean, they expand the practice. In-house Six Sigma black belts and Toyota Production System experts keep the company up with the latest techniques. To some, however, it might seem like few companies can afford building the whole justify-implement-assess framework from scratch.

What we can learn here is that it never hurts to start small and try new things, if you are able to measure the real cost and value of every initiative. That is, invest in measurement tools and systems so you could experiment and innovate more.

3.

Wipro employees at all levels, from the executive board to the freshman tester, plan their activity monthly. They assess their performance against scorecards and report their progress monthly. And their salaries are calculated in such a way that they are motivated to achieve real results, monthly.

Do you get it? That's right, the whole system is geared towards getting things done and achieving real results.

So what are the lessons we, the companies that have been raised in hothouse conditions, can learn from Wipro's story? The message is quite obvious, yet few stick to it : move fast, take risks, be consistent.

Technorati Tags: Software Outsourcing Maturity, Bangalore Tiger, software outsourcing maturity, Steve Hamm

RCOS Report: Eastern Europe ICT and Outsourcing Market 2007-2011

The report "Eastern Europe ICT and Outsourcing Market (2007-2011)” by RNCOS provides research and rational analysis on the IT&C industry in Eastern Europe. It underlines the issues related to the success of the industry and provides a prudent analysis on its various aspects.

The report presents a comprehensive overview of the past and current performance of the IT industry including software, hardware and services industry of Russia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia.

Key Findings :

• Eastern European software industry grew by 12.53% in 2006 and is further estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.87% till 2008.
  
  
• Low cost outsourcing services and highly qualified talent pool is driving the industry.
  
  
• EU accession is one of the factors that are attracting more international IT players to invest in Eastern European software industry.
  
  
• Growing IT industry provides opportunities for consultancy firms, R&D centers and ICT industry.
  
  
• With the development of IT outsourcing industry, enormous opportunities emerge in ICT industry, Education Service market, for the global as well as domestic players. Russia and Ukraine are emerging as the most desired destinations for IT outsourcing.
  
  
• Historically, major part of the Eastern European IT market was constituted by the hardware segment that is expected to be replaced by the software industry soon.

Frost and Sullivan: Trends in ICT outsourcing

The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry has provided the supporting infrastructure for economic growth across the world in the last decade. Despite the setbacks following the failure of dot com enterprises, the ICT industry continues to show enormous growth potential. ICT is a vital component of the infrastructural support needed for the development of any economy. Global trends in telecommunications indicate a shift toward open access, creation of a healthy competitive environment, and a consequent drop in prices. Although companies are likely to continue outsourcing IT services mainly to India, they are also expected to increasingly witness lucrative bids from Russia, the Philippines, Ireland, Israel, and China.

ICT spending is likely to grow impressively, with emerging markets in eastern Europe and Asia leading the way. Shares of IT and telecommunications sectors are almost equally important in the total ICT spending, with governments and businesses accounting for more than three quarters of the spending. The general economy, expanding consumer base, and increasing foreign investments play a critical role in the development of this industry.

The economic future of Russia looks promising in the central and eastern European (CEE) region, owing largely to the country’s stable and strong macroeconomic environment. The gross domestic product (GDP) of over $814.76 billion and economic growth rate of 6.7 percent in 2006 have strengthened Russia’s robust growth prospects. Moreover, strong consumer demand, greater political stability, expanding consumer base, and increasing foreign investment flows are expected to allay hindrances such as energy-dependent exports, weak infrastructure, and geographical imbalances. This industry offers tremendous employment opportunities, considering it witnessed double-digit growth for the last five years and is poised for further growth until 2010.

Russia’s vast human resources and low labor costs hold it in good stead in the ICT industry, while its competent education system provides its citizens with high levels of skills, excellent training, as well as intensive scientific and engineering expertise. However, the country is impaired by substandard process quality, a weak legal system, and intellectual property right (IPR) enforcement. All these are set to change, with the present government strongly focusing on the development of the IT industry, since the telecommunications industry is already well covered.

link to "Economic Analysis for the Russian Information and Communication Technologies Industry" report page

REUTERS: Kenya strives to Become the new Outsourcing Destication for BPO and software outsourcing services

Kenya is banking the first fibre-optic cable in east Africa to be laid by mid-2008. Many Kenyan entrepreneurs hope that this, plus cheap labour, clear accents, and customer fatigue with Indian call centres could help the African country hook into the booming call centre and software development outsourcing industry, Reuters reports.

Right now, poor, outdated technology is the country's main hurdle. BPO companies in Kenya have to rely on legacy satellite system that fails to deliver quality voice calls. What's worth, satellite connection costs $7,000 per megabyte of bandwidth each month, compared with the roughly $500 per megabyte Indian operators pay.

The new fiber-optic cable, known as The East African Marine Systems (TEAMS), will connect Mombasa with Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Eventually, it will bring the cost of bandwidth down to levels similar to what India is paying. Once the technology is in place Kenya will be able to compete with India and the Philippines for clients that demand fluent English language.

via Information Week

Technorati Tags: Kenya ITO industry, software outsourcing industry